19 Rush hour

"W-What is happening?!" Asked Xiangling.

She and her father just arrived at their restaurant to open up, but before they could get near it, they noticed a commotion in the other shop that was next to them.

At least 10 or 20 people were crowding Igarashi's shop, asking various questions.

"This is the shop, right? Where's the owner!" Yelled a person from the crowd

"I came here because my friend said this shop was recommended to him by the second son of the leader of the Feiyun commerce guild!" Another person yelled

"Feiyun Commerce Guild? I came here because I was threatened by the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's director saying "What's even the point of living if you haven't read this yet? Looks like you don't want to live anymore, let me help you!"." Complained a youth

"Miss Ying'Er said that going here is most recommended." Said a young lady

"I'm just honestly here because everyone else is here." Added a person at the front

In short, people are either here because Xingqiu and Ying'Er recommend this place, or because a certain funeral parlor director... Threatened them. Though, in all honesty, the person might have just misunderstood Hu Tao's intention.

"Looks like it worked." At this moment, a voice was heard beside Xiangling.

She turned around to see Xingqiu who had a proud look on his face as he looked at the crowd of people. "With this much, Boss Yunru shouldn't have any problem selling his work."

"Eh?! Xingqiu, is this your doing?!" Xiangling asked

Xingqiu smiled and shrugged before pointing at Xiangling. "I originally planned to do it on my own, but it looks like someone else had the same idea as me."

Xiangling turned her head behind to see Hu Tao's face REALLY close to her before the latter surprising her with a "BOO!"

"EEK!?" Xiangling jumped in fright, to which Xingqiu chuckled at

Xiangling calmed herself down and complained to Hu Tao. "W-Would you stop doing that already!"

"Ehe" Hu Tao winked and smiled as she stuck her tongue out in a cute manner. "You're always so fun to scare, my dear Xiangling~"

Xiangling didn't even bother going in deeper into the subject and changed it. "Anyways, what did you and Xingqiu do? Why are there so many people in front of Boss Yunru's shop?"

Hu Tao and Xingqiu looked at each other and just smiled with a smug look on their faces.

"Nothing, really. I just wanted to help Boss Yunru grow his business. Someone as unique and talented as him can't just be left unnoticed by the public; that would just be a shame to us book lovers out there." Xingqiu shrugged and explained

"I didn't understand most of what happened in the book, but I liked it. And I did like the idea of switching bodies." Hu Tao briefly explained. She wasn't really that much interested in novels, but with Yunru's different method of showing illustrations, it made her rethink her decisions.

"So... The two of you helped Boss Yunru to sell more of his work...?" Xiangling summarised the situation

Xingqiu and Hu Tao nodded in agreement synchronously.

"Seems rather lively here today..." At this point, another voice was heard.

The three of them turned to look who it was and saw a person they were all familiar with.

The person has light blue hair reaching his ears, pale skin, and ice-blue cat-slit eyes.

He wears an asymmetrical white hooded jacket with navy embroidery. Under this, he wears a blue shirt over white pants with gold cuffs, along with a dark navy undershirt. He has bandages around his right wrist and right ankle. He wears his vision on the left side of his belt.

Seeing the person that just arrived, Xingqiu suddenly got lively. "Ah! Chongyun, what are you doing here?"

Xingqiu and Chongyun had been friends for a very long time and it is no question that they're really close. And despite Xingqiu's constant pranking and teasing, Chongyun still tolerates him and regards him as a friend the same as him.

Chongyun hummed and replied, "I had nothing to do and wanted to hang out. Back to the question, what are you guys doing?"

"Oh, we're helping out the author of the book you gave me." Xingqiu said

"Hmm, I see. It was a good book, in my opinion. If possible, I'd like to visit the country in that book called Japan." Chongyun hummed and replied.

"Actually, Japan doesn't seem to—" Xiangling was about to say something but was stopped by Xingqiu who looked like he was holding in his laugh

Xiangling stayed silent and Xingqiu continued her words. "As Xiangling was about to say, Japan doesn't allow anyone to enter it at the moment, so you'll have to wait."

"Oh... I see..." Chongyun said with a frown. "Very well then. If a chance comes, I'll try to visit it."

Xiangling went near Xingqiu and replied to his ear. "Why didn't you tell him that perhaps Japan doesn't exist?"

"Pft, it would be much funnier. I'll tell him the truth later." Xingqiu mischievously said

Xiangling nodded and the three of them continued to discuss about Igarashi's manga. As for Hu Tao, God knows where she crawled herself in.

* * *

Meanwhile, inside the shop, Igarashi's team was in full-on work mode.

With last night's increase in system credits, he immediately bought their first printer. He tested it out for a bit and familiarized himself with using it, which turned out okay.

Still, he did not expect... This chaos happening so early in the morning.

'Where the heck did all these people come from?!' Igarashi thought as he placed the manga pages made by Sasori downstairs in the printer upstairs. He wasn't going to show and explain what a printer is to other people so he just decided to hide it up there.

Sasori was also getting a bit worked up as his hands moved with fast precision.

But the person that has the most workload is none other than their editor, Mo Fan. He was opening and closing manga pages from here and there to see if there are any problems, and it was tough work.

"Hey! Where's the book I ordered?!" Yelled one of the men who already paid for a manga.

"Coming in real quick!" Igarashi yelled as he went back down carrying 8 manga books with him. As for the other manga books he and Sasori made the other days, they were already sold.

He then gave each person that already paid a manga and immediately went back upstairs to print and combine manga pages.

This cycle continued until 10 in the morning when the crowd finally started getting smaller. At this point, there were only about 7 people outside Igarashi's shop.

"Wow, you look like you could drop dead on the floor at any moment. Why don't you preorder your coffin early so you don't have to worry if you suddenly fall to the floor?" Suddenly an unknown voice resounded on the second floor where Igarashi was. He got terrified and turned his head to see a familiar figure.

It was Hu Tao. And she's sitting on the floor with a ghost in her hand.

She then continued speaking with a cheeky smile. "Since I did like your book, I can give you a 48% discount! That's a pretty good deal, isn't it?!"

Igarashi got scared by her sudden appearance and immediately asked. "H-Hu Tao?! Why and how are you here?!"

"Oh? You know me already?" She curiously asked

"I— *cough* X-Xiangling mentioned you and some others..." Igarashi made an excise

"Ehhh... Izzat so?" Hu Tao said as she stood up.

She then went to the stairs and was about to hi down, but not before saying one last message. "Consider my offer~"

Igarashi didn't even bother scolding her for trespassing private property and just sighed. It was a rough morning.

He then went down to the first floor to see a fainted Mo Fan on the desk and a disheveled Sasori also lying his head down on a desk.

Seeing this, Igarashi internally chuckled. 'Can't blame them... It was a rush hour...'

He then gave the other mangas he made to the remaining people and got paid.

He then slammed down to the couch as he checked his status.

•~•~•~•~•

[Name: Igarashi Izanagi]

[Title(s): Mangaka (Buffs: 10% proficiency in arts)]

STR: D

DEF: D

STA: C+

INT: B+

[Upgrade points available: 8]

Vision: [--]

Delusion: [--]

Skills:

[???]: ???

Proficiency: 0%

[Drawing/Sketching]: The ability to illustrate]

Proficiency: 49% (+10%)

[A Mangaka's will]: Once activated, the stamina and intelligence stats shall be raised by one division (Not to be confused by one level), and last for 2 hours.]

Proficiency: 28%

[Tears of a Mangaka]: Sacrifice your sleep in exchange for a temporary boost in stats. Note: The chances of attaining an illness are high after this is used.]

Proficiency: 13%

•~•~•~•~•

Igarashi smiled in happiness as he saw that he got more upgrade points. His skills also increased in proficiency because he used them so many times.

'I'll distribute them later...'

He closed the status window down and opened his system shop.

•~•~•~•~•

[Credits: 170]

• ??? Class (Locked)

• God Class (Locked)

• Heaven Class (Locked)

• Earth Class (Locked)

• Mortal Class ←

•~•~•~•~•

'170 Credits...' It may look small, but to Igarashi, this amount was similar to when he finally got his first bedroom. 'I can buy a lot with those credits... I'll do it later.'

He then closed all of the system tabs and decided to relax with his team that got a rude morning call.

However, before he could relax, a knock came from the door.

Igarashi was frustrated at this moment. He just started laying down and another customer came to ruin it. "Haah...." He sighed heavily

Igarashi stood up and went to the door and opened it. He was about to tell the person that bothered him to go away and come back later but he was shocked before even doing so.

"Pardon me... But is this the source of the commotion earlier...?" Said the person outside Igarashi's door.

"..." Igarashi stayed silent

'It's... Ganyu.' He thought.

(A/N: Gonna write the people's reaction tomorrow... I won't individually write all of them, just some general thinking... The next one will probably be a long chapter...)

Next chapter